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Enlil
The Enlil are a race of feathered beings originating from the continent of Boreas. The Enlil revel in their freedom and can sway in an instant from jubilant to ferocious. Being able to do what they want, when they want, being able to go where their heart tugs them, is the innate goal for the Enlil. That freedom is the goal, though, and so the Enlil are more likely to intimidate opposition and go about their business. While formidable, the Enlil are not keen to battle more than necessary: when they fight or struggle, it is a means to an end. Description Beings with command of heights and the alacrity to reach them, Enlil are beings both lithe and spry. Their chests are narrow, and compact. Thickly-grown feathers create a mass of down that keeps them warm in the winter months, protruding slightly from their chests to give an appearance of strength. Their necks are often hidden behind a layer of feathers, which thin just below the jawline to reveal smooth skin. Their heads jut forwards slightly, capable of swiveling to almost a full one-eighty. Rarely, a bony ridge protrudes from atop the mouth, matched by two smaller ones at the bottom of their mouths; these are vestigial remnants of beaks that ancestors of the Enlil once possessed. Enlilian teeth, curved inwards and designed for carnivorous consumption, are held within their mouths. Atop their heads sit a crown of feathers, the plumage typically more subdued in females than males, with more keratin-like ridges sometimes lining their crowns. Their limbs are - like their chests - often disguised behind a thick mess of feathers that hang downwards. From their shoulders to their elbows, a curtain of feathers serves as a means to glide from great heights, joining at the bottom with an Enlil's hips. Below the elbows and knees, the down terminates entirely into keratin-like material. The thin but powerful limbs protrude into a ball joint with three pointed talons arranged into two forelimbs and one hind. History The Avian clans of the Enlil have a long, storied history, though by and large they keep to themselves and are protective of that history and their traditions. The continent of Boreas was previously covered with giant trees, their massive trunks easily reaching a kilometer into the sky, or even higher, with bases more than 100m in diameter. They built entire communities among the branches, yearning to live as close to the sky as possible. Because of their desire for freedom and general isolationism, the Enlil rarely encountered the other races, but their hot-blooded nature and fierce protectiveness of their freedom almost invariably led to conflict when such meetings occurred. Rancor was especially dour between the Velen and the Enlil. Inherently opposed---some would say at a biologically level---the two races have often quarreled over the shorelines of Boreas, important fishing grounds for the Enlil people. During the Cataclysm, tragedy struck the entire world but hit the Enlil especially hard: the mighty trees that they called home were shattered and broken. The continent of Boreas burned for years, destroying everything that the survivors could not carry and forcing them out into the world. In an unexpected act of charity, sympathetic to their plight, Velen, even while reeling from their own losses, helped to transport the survivors to the northern continent of Hiemas. When the flames of Boreas eventually died down, the Enlil returned to find everything they knew destroyed. Putting out the remaining fires, they faced a crisis: rebuild or move on? Presently, the Enlil are divided between those two choices, but still united at heart. Still with a yearning to touch the sky but without the trees they once called home, many Enlil turned to machinery, making stunning advances in the field of engineering and within the past few decades, finally attaining a long-held goal: the creation of various aircraft to take them into the skies. Others of the Enlil sought to regrow and rebuild Boreas, and after several centuries, their efforts are beginning to bear fruit. Forests once again cover the continent of Boreas, densely-packed and vibrant. Sadly the tallest of the trees barely tops 500m, and it's theorized by many that it will take another millennium before they regain their once-glorious stature. The Enlil themselves are divided into many communities, including three large cities. There is no true ruling body, with every group of the avians calling for the freedom to govern themselves, but they maintain three representatives, selected by the largest cities, to speak on their behalf among the other nations.